How to use HomeKit to automatically turn your lights on when you come home at night

Have you ever returned home at night with your hands full, having to fumble around in the dark to turn on a light? This was a common occurrence in my house, where there’s no light switches near the entrance from our garage. My wife and I often shop for groceries later in the day and it’s always a pain to get the lights turned on when we’re each carrying five or six bags.

I’d like to show you how we solved that problem, utilizing the automation features in the Home app and an inexpensive HomeKit-compatible power outlet that we plugged our living room lamp into. We use the iDevices Switch, but this will work with any HomeKit device that powers a light in your home.

Launch the Home app and navigate to the Automation tab.

Tap the + button in the upper-right to create a new automation.

Choose People Arrive.

Set it to trigger when The First Person Arrives, change the Time setting to At Night, and tap Next.

Choose the HomeKit device or devices you’d like to turn on, and tap Next — I chose our living room light because it’s the closest to our entrance from the garage.

Tap each light to tell the Home app that you’d like them turned on when the automation triggers, and then tap Done.

From now on, whenever the first person arrives home at night, your chosen light or lights should automatically turn on.